Frequently Asked Questions · MORANA: The Open Grave
MORANA FAQ: the game, the rules, the world, the model
This is the central FAQ for MORANA: The Open Grave, a two-player Slavic folk-horror card game you can play free in your browser. Below are the real questions about the game, its rules, its world, its model, and its maker, each answered directly. For campaign and backer questions, see the backer FAQ; to just start playing, the free duel is at moranatcg.com/play.html.
THE GAME
Is MORANA free to play?
Yes. The full core game runs free in your browser at moranatcg.com/play.html, with no cost, no download, and no signup. The physical card game is in development and not yet on sale.
How do I play MORANA?
You and a rival contest three sacred Sites. Each turn both players commit one card face-down at a Site and reveal together, defeated spirits cross face-up into the Open Grave and can return stronger, and you race to 13 Slava to win. A game takes about 15 minutes, and the free browser duel teaches the whole loop in four rounds. The learn hub has the full guides.
Do I need to download or sign up?
No. The browser game needs no download and no account. You open a tab and play.
Is MORANA single-player or multiplayer?
Both. You can play solo against an AI opponent that bluffs back, or challenge another person to a head-to-head duel. The tabletop game is for two players.
How long is a game of MORANA?
About 15 minutes for a full duel.
Is there a solo mode?
Yes. You can duel the AI at escalating difficulty, and there is a solo gauntlet called the Vigil: a one-night run against five escalating foes, from a timid shade to the Deathless, with a Keeper of the Vigil title for clearing it.
Is there anything to progress toward?
Yes. There are player profiles with avatars and forged rank badges, a win and loss record, and a rank ladder of named tiers you climb as you play.
THE RULES
What is the Open Grave?
The Open Grave is MORANA's signature: your graveyard, called Nav, lies face-up for both players, so every defeated spirit and its possible return are known to everyone. The only hidden move each turn is the single card you commit face-down. Because the whole recursion layer is open, the game plays like a chess endgame with one blind swap per move.
What is Nav, and what is the Turning?
Nav is the underworld row where your defeated spirits go, face-up. The Turning is the game's heart: a fallen spirit can be Reborn from Nav, returning to the board with a second, often stronger effect. Death is the middle of the card, not the end.
Is MORANA based on luck or skill?
Skill. There is no card draw luck deciding the recursion layer, because Nav is fully open and your resource (Embers) equals the turn number, known to both players. The winner is whoever reads the board and the single blind commit better.
What are the keywords?
The core keywords are Omen (an effect on entering), Vigil (an ongoing effect while in play), Reborn (an effect when a spirit returns from Nav), Clash (a combat value), Ward (protection), Step (movement between Sites), Rooted (cannot move), and Invocation (a Warden's signature ability). Embers, your resource, equal the current turn number, and you win by reaching 13 Slava.
How many cards are in a game or a deck?
Set 1, the launch set, is 62 cards and includes two ready-to-play starter decks. The full card gallery is browsable on the site.
THE WORLD
Who is Morana?
Morana is the Slavic goddess of winter and death, and of their end. In folklore she is drowned in effigy each winter and rises again with the thaw, the turning that outlives death. The custom of drowning Marzanna's effigy at winter's end is a real, still-practiced Slavic tradition, and it is the heart of the whole game.
What is the setting of MORANA?
A Slavic folk-horror world in which the wheel of the year has cracked, tearing the boundary between the living (Yav), the dead (Nav), and the divine order that held them apart (Prav). The dead now walk back through the wound, and Wardens keep the watch at the places where the wheel is thinnest. The full founding myth is at the story page.
What are the Ten Worlds?
MORANA is the first chapter of a planned ten-world saga, each set a different culture's folklore telling the same story of a cracked wheel and returning dead, from Slavic myth through the Grimm forests, Greek trials, Norse doom, and on to a final Council Fire. The first world is playable now; the others are the mapped saga ahead, not yet released.
Is MORANA based on real folklore?
Yes. The world is built from genuine public-domain folklore, retold in MORANA's own words and art, beginning with Slavic and Balkan myth (the household spirits, the drowned maidens, the goddess Morana) and expanding through other cultures' traditions in later sets.
THE MODEL
Does MORANA have booster packs or blind packs?
No. MORANA uses fixed distribution: one complete box holds every card, nothing is randomized, and you always know exactly what you are buying. There are no blind packs anywhere in the game or its plans.
Is there any gambling or loot-box mechanic?
No. There is no paid random content of any kind: not in the boxes, not in promos, not anywhere. Rarity is cosmetic, so a rarer treatment is a different finish, never different power or better odds. There are no odds, because there is nothing to gamble on.
Is MORANA pay-to-win?
No. The whole game is one fixed set, rarity never affects power or your odds, and the full game is free to play in your browser, so wins come from skill and never from spending. Money cannot buy an advantage.
When can I buy MORANA?
The physical game is not yet on sale. It is in development, pre-campaign, with a crowdfunding campaign planned but not yet launched, and no date is promised. The free browser game is available now and stays free.
What is the current status of MORANA?
In development, pre-campaign. Set 1 (the Slavic First Turning, 62 cards) is complete and playable digitally, Set 2 (The Old Tales, 119 cards) is a fully illustrated preview, and later sets are designed as a mapped saga ahead.
THE MAKER
Who makes MORANA?
One person: a solo developer, self-funded, based in Bulgaria in the European Union. The design, the rules, the balance, and every written word are one maker's work.
Is the art AI-generated?
Honestly: the illustrations are AI-assisted and art-directed in-house, under one locked style guide, with human selection and correction on every card, and this is disclosed on the site from the start. The game itself, its design, rules, balance, and writing, is entirely human work.
How do I know the game is balanced?
The whole balancing story is public, patch by patch, at moranatcg.com/how-morana-is-balanced.html, including the time the studio nerfed its own best deck and showed the numbers. The game was tuned across a large, published body of simulated games, and that page stays up.
Still have a question?
Play the free duel at moranatcg.com/play.html, read the full story of the world at the-story-of-morana.html, or learn the rules in depth at the guides hub. For campaign and backer questions, see the backer FAQ.
This is the general game knowledge base for MORANA: The Open Grave. For campaign and backer questions, see the backer FAQ. The full game is playable free now in your browser; the physical game is in development and not yet on sale.